Saskatchewan was tied with the Atlantic provinces for injured drivers with blood alcohol content above 0.05 per cent.
A study by researchers at the University of British Columbia has found that Saskatchewan drivers injured in crashes are tied with those in Atlantic Canada for being the most likely to have an illegal level of alcohol in their blood.
Jeff Brubacher, a Vancouver-based emergency room physician and a professor at the University of British Columbia, leads an ongoing study that tested blood samples from more than 10,000 drivers across eight provinces between 2018 and 2023. The drivers were hurt in crashes serious enough to require a hospital visit and blood work.
Brubacher said the samples for his project are taken from leftovers pulled in the course of hospital treatment; samples were anonymized at participating hospitals before being sent to his lab in Vancouver.
The results showed Saskatchewan tied with the Atlantic provinces with 17 per cent of injured drivers found to have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 per cent or higher, compared to a rate of 13 per cent nationally.
A BAC of 0.05 is enough to trigger administrative sanctions at the provincial level in Saskatchewan. Further, Brubacher noted many of the Saskatchewan samples — just under 15 per cent — were over 0.08 per cent, which is the threshold for criminal charges.
These numbers “should be zero,” Brubacher said, suggesting the findings highlight the need for continued efforts on enforcement and education when it comes to drunk driving.
“People drink and drive because they think they’re going to get away with it,“ he added.
While 17 per cent were above legal limits, a full 21 per of the Saskatchewan samples contained some amount of alcohol, bucking a national trend that has seen cannabis narrowly become the most common substance found in the samples, at a rate of 16.6 per cent compared to 16 per cent for alcohol.
Brubacher cautioned that the presence of substances doesn’t always indicate impairment and that drugs, including cannabis, are “way more complicated” than alcohol when it comes to establishing thresholds for impairment.
While he said drunk driving remains the bigger threat to driver safety and public health, Brubacher said the rising presence of cannabis in the samples points to a need to do more to educate drivers, especially about mixing cannabis or other drugs with alcohol, which increases the chances of impairment.
Brubacher noted that prescription and over-the-counter drugs are also an increasing area of concern. He said about a third of all samples contained some level of “sedating” substances found in things like sleeping pills, prescriptions for anxiety and allergy remedies; such substances are seen at higher rates in samples from women and older drivers.
While alcohol and cannabis tend to get the most attention, Brubacher said drivers need to hear they shouldn’t be behind the wheel when impaired by any substance, whether recreational or medicinal.
“Your reaction time just isn’t as good as what it should otherwise be,” he said.
Saskatchewan Government Insurance spokesman Tyler McMurchy said there’s nothing “incredibly shocking” in the UBC study findings.
While he said Saskatchewan’s data compared to the rest of the country points to the need for ongoing work, McMurchy said five-year averages of impaired driving deaths and injuries in the province are decreasing, from 511 people injured and 47 killed in the period from 2013 to 2017, compared to the most recent five-year period showing an average of 31 deaths and 357 injuries.
While he said the decrease is “hard to celebrate” when there’s still so much injury and loss of life due to a “completely preventable” cause, McMurchy said it’s proof that enforcement, education, awareness and changing attitudes “has all combined to save lives and reduce injuries.”
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